William Roark Ratliff (born August 16, 1936), is an American politician and engineer who served as a member of the

Texas Senate The Texas Senate ( es, Senado de Texas) is the upper house of the Texas State Legislature. There are 31 members of the Senate, representing single-member districts across the U.S. state of Texas, with populations of approximately 806,000 per cons ...

from 1988 to 2004.Bill Ratliff
, Texas State Politics, University of Texas Between 2000 and 2003 he served as the 40th

lieutenant governor of Texas The lieutenant governor of Texas is the second-highest executive office in the government of Texas, a state in the U.S. It is the second most powerful post in Texas government because its occupant controls the work of the Texas Senate and control ...

, after previous Lieutenant Governor

Rick Perry James Richard Perry (born March 4, 1950) is an American politician who served as the 14th United States secretary of energy from 2017 to 2019 and as the 47th governor of Texas from 2000 to 2015. Perry also ran unsuccessfully for the Republica ...

replaced

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

, who resigned to become

president of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

.Bill Ratliff, A New Texas Star?
''National Conference of State Legislatures'', April 2001

Early life and education

Ratliff was educated at

Sonora High School Sonora High School (SOHS) is a public high school located at 401 S. Palm Street in La Habra, north Orange County, California. One of seven high schools in the Fullerton Joint Union High School District, Sonora served over 1,944 students in the 2 ...

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is d ...

in Sutton County in

West Texas West Texas is a loosely defined region in the U.S. state of Texas, generally encompassing the arid and semiarid lands west of a line drawn between the cities of Wichita Falls, Abilene, and Del Rio. No consensus exists on the boundary betwee ...

and then at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, where he studied

civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...

. Ratliff, along with brothers Shannon and Jack, was a member of the

Phi Gamma Delta Phi Gamma Delta (), commonly known as Fiji, is a social fraternity with more than 144 active chapters and 10 colonies across the United States and Canada. It was founded at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, in 1848. Along with Phi Kappa Psi, Phi ...

fraternity.

Career

Ratliff worked as a civil engineer for thirty years.

Texas Senate

He was first elected in 1988 as a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

to the

. In 1992, he was appointed chairman of the Senate Education Committee by Lieutenant Governor

Bob Bullock Robert Douglas Bullock Sr. (July 10, 1929 – June 18, 1999), was an American Democratic Party (United States), Democratic politician from Texas, whose career spanned four decades. His service culminated in his term as the 38th List of lieu ...

. From 1997 to 1998, he served as

President Pro Tempore A president pro tempore or speaker pro tempore is a constitutionally recognized officer of a legislative body who presides over the chamber in the absence of the normal presiding officer. The phrase ''pro tempore'' is Latin "for the time being". ...

of the Texas Senate. Ratliff and his wife, the former Sally Sandlin, have three children and eight grandchildren. Son

Bennett Ratliff Bennett Ratliff (born August 18, 1961) is an American civil engineer, businessman, and politician who served as a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives from district 115 in Dallas County and currently serves as a Planning and ...

of Coppell, a

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

, served nine years as a Coppell ISD School Board Trustee and was elected in 2012 to represent District 115 in the

Texas House of Representatives The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. As of the 2010 United States census, each member represents abou ...

. Another son, Robert Thomas Ratliff (born 1967) of Mt. Pleasant, is the Republican Vice-Chairman of the

Texas State Board of Education The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is the branch of the government of Texas responsible for public education in Texas in the United States.

. Ratliff announced in 2003 that he would not run for reelection to the State Senate in 2004.Bill Ratliff Calls It Quits
''Austin Chronicle'', November 28, 2003 Instead he soon resigned the Senate seat and was succeeded in a special election by Republican

Kevin Eltife Kevin Paul Eltife (born March 1, 1959) is an American businessman and former politician from Tyler, Texas. A Republican, served in the Texas Senate from 2004 through 2017. He was sworn in on August 15, 2004, after winning a special election to r ...

Tyler Tyler may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tyler (name), an English name; with lists of people with the surname or given name * Tyler, the Creator (born 1991), American rap artist and producer * John Tyler, 10th president of the United ...

. In 2005, Ratliff was awarded the

John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award The Profile in Courage Award is a private award given to recognize displays of courage similar to those John F. Kennedy originally described in his Profiles in Courage, book of the same name. It is given to individuals (often elected officials) wh ...

for "the example he has set of courage and principle in American public life".Bill Ratliff
John F. Kennedy Library Foundation

Lieutenant governor

In 2000, for the first time in Texas history, the

was called upon to choose a new

lieutenant governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...

after the election of

as President of the United States and the resultant succession of lieutenant governor

to become

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

. In accordance with a 1984 amendment to the

Texas Constitution The Constitution of the State of Texas is the document that establishes the structure and function of the government of the U.S. state of Texas, and enumerates the basic rights of the citizens of Texas. The current document was adopted on Febr ...

of 1876, the Texas Senate chooses one of its own members to fill a vacancy in the position of lieutenant governor. In the election for lieutenant governor, Ratliff defeated rival David Sibley of

Waco Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the st ...

. In 2001, Ratliff first announced that he would be a candidate for election to a full four-year term to the office of Lieutenant Governor in the 2002 state elections, and he received the endorsement of several prominent Republican legislators.Prominent Texas Republican Senators and House Members Support Lt. Governor Bill Ratliff as He Announces Plans to Run
''Business Wire'', May 26, 2001 However, he later withdrew from the race, and the position went to

David Dewhurst David Henry Dewhurst (born August 18, 1945) is an American politician, businessman, and attorney who served as the 41st Lieutenant Governor of Texas, serving from 2003 to 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he was the Texas Land Commissione ...

, the Texas land commissioner.

Political views

Ratliff is regarded as a moderate. He stated in an interview, "I am a Republican because I agree with the Republicans at least 51 percent of the time." He has taken

bipartisan Bipartisanship, sometimes referred to as nonpartisanship, is a political situation, usually in the context of a two-party system (especially those of the United States and some other western countries), in which opposing political parties find co ...

stands on a number of issues. While in the Texas Senate, he supported controversial reforms that transferred funds from richer to poorer school districts for more equitable funding. He also argued in favor of "patients' rights" in medical malpractice cases during a debate on tort reform, and in 2003 criticized other members of the State Senate for failing to raise taxes in order to prevent large budget cuts. In early 2003, Ratliff was the only dissenting member of his party who joined with Democratic state senators in opposing a redistricting proposal of Texas's then thirty-two seats in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

that he felt would lead to the under-representation of rural voters. In cooperation with ten Democrats, he signed a letter refusing to bring the matter to the Senate floor, which, by virtue of Texas Senate traditions that require a two-thirds vote of those present and voting to allow a bill to be debated, prevented the proposal from being passed. Eventually a plan suitable to Republicans was enacted in the third of three special legislative sessions called in 2003 by Governor Perry. Under that plan, by 2011, Republicans held twenty-three U.S. House seats from Texas compared to nine for Democrats.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ratliff, Bill 1936 births Living people 21st-century American engineers Lieutenant Governors of Texas Republican Party Texas state senators Cockrell School of Engineering alumni People from Sutton County, Texas People from Mount Pleasant, Texas 21st-century American politicians